"The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s
feeding-trough, but Israel does not know; My people
do not understand." Isaiah 1:3
Ignorance is the source of all sin, the very well-spring
from which all wickedness does issue. Ignorance . . .
enslaves a soul to Satan;
lets in sin by troops;
locks them up in the heart;
shuts out the means of recovery;
and so plasters up a man's eyes, that he cannot see
the things which belong to his own eternal peace.
The Scripture sets ignorant people below the ox and
the donkey. Did men either see the deformity of sin,
or the beauty and excellency of holiness—they would
never delight in the one—nor cry down the other!
Ignorance is a breeding sin, a mother sin; all sins are
seminally in ignorance. Ignorance is the mother of all
the mistakes, and of all the misrule in the world.
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Thomas Brooks (1608 - 1680)
Much of what is known about Thomas Brooks has been ascertained from his writings. Born, likely to well-to-do parents, in 1608, Brooks entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1625, where he was preceded by such men as Thomas Hooker, John Cotton, and Thomas Shepard. He was licensed as a preacher of the Gospel by 1640. Before that date, he appears to have spent a number of years at sea, probably as a chaplain with the fleet.After the conclusion of the First English Civil War, Thomas Brooks became minister at Thomas Apostle's, London, and was sufficiently renowned to be chosen as preacher before the House of Commons on December 26, 1648. His sermon was afterwards published under the title, 'God's Delight in the Progress of the Upright', the text being Psalm 44:18: 'Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy way'. Three or four years afterwards, he transferred to St. Margaret's, Fish-street Hill, London. In 1662, he fell victim to the notorious Act of Uniformity, but he appears to have remained in his parish and to have preached as opportunity arose. Treatises continued to flow from his pen.[3]
Thomas Brooks was a nonconformist preacher. Born into a Puritan family, he was sent to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He soon became an advocate of the Congregational way and served as a chaplain in the Civil War. In 1648 he accepted the rectory of St. Margaret's, New Fish Street, London, but only after making his Congregational principles clear to the vestry.
On several occasions he preached before Parliament. He was ejected in 1660 and remained in London as a Nonconformist preacher. Government spies reported that he preached at Tower Wharf and in Moorfields. During the Great Plague and Great Fire he worked in London, and in 1672 was granted a license to preach in Lime Street. He wrote over a dozen books, most of which are devotional in character. He was buried in Bunhill Fields.